Morgan Stanley the investment bank has been charmed by the Michigan-based startup Rivian Automotive. Currently 80{5183627f5ab5e478a378d862bd47bf67c79b640f838c75b2ea072c4667c57572} of the electric cars sold in America are Teslas, Rivian Automotive provides an alternative to this phenomenon. According to a consultant in Morgan Stanley the company has expert engineers that deal with electric vehicle manufacturing and also has suitable capital to keep updating its models.

Founded in 2009 by now-36-year-old CEO R.J. Scaringe, the company initially dealt with making petrol based vehicles that were supposed to provide consumers with abnormally high mileage, but eventually shifted their focus to making electric autonomous vehicles in 2011. during this time the new director of engineering was hired who had previously worked for Mclaren, likewise the vice-president was a former employee at jeep and overlooked the production of the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee models.

Rivian has only launched 2 cars for the American markets, one is the R1T electric truck and the R1S electric SUV. Apparently the truck can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 3 seconds and can tow up to 11000 pounds. The SUV is a proper herculean 7-seater. It makes a lot of sense to only sell massive passenger cars in the US as Americans have always liked huge SUVs and trucks. In 2017, vehicle unit sales were 65{5183627f5ab5e478a378d862bd47bf67c79b640f838c75b2ea072c4667c57572} trucks, crossovers and SUVs and only 35{5183627f5ab5e478a378d862bd47bf67c79b640f838c75b2ea072c4667c57572} passenger cars in the US.

The Rivian R1T electric pick-up truck.

What could prove very difficult for Rivian however is, persuading the Tesla clientele to try a different alternative. One advantage Rivian has over Tesla is that Tesla doesn’t make SUVs and trucks, so there is a vacancy for consumership of electric SUVs and trucks.

Even Amazon and General motors are considering to invest in the company.

General Motors has committed to introducing more than 20 electric vehicles by 2023. Most of those are expected to be built and sold primarily in China.